my pint-sized picassos

Have I mentioned how much I love our art curriculum??? I really truly do, it was my best impulse purchase at the curriculum fair, I do believe. I love that it not only teaches them about how to "do art" but it also teaches them about art through art appreciation. Today we did Picasso's Mains Aux Fleurs. We learned about brush strokes and color mixing... so much fun! I got really brave and let them do this at the table in the playroom (over carpet!!) so they could follow along with the dvd. Here are some pics (not sure I like the new photobucket slideshow thing though)....



Oh... my big announcement is.... I'm now officially a digi CT member for A Cherry on Top! I'm so excited to work with such an amazing group of scrappers!!

Other than that... we're busy here trying to get ready to head out of town for Fall Break. We're going back to Missouri to stay with my parents. It's just nice to have a change of scenery. Our goal is to work on Alex's Cub Scout Fishing Belt Loop and Pin. My parents have a stocked pond on their property plus they just bought a fishing boat for the little local lake. We'll also probably hit the Nature Center and possibly Bass Pro. The fun thing about homeschooling is that we can turn his cub scout requirements into little unit studies for school!

Yikes! It's 20 to 4:00... I've got to get the kids to martial arts!

Oh... one more thing... send good health vibes our way if you can.... 6 kids out of Clara's preschool class were out yesterday with a stomach bug. I'm really not a fan of stomach bugs! Thanks!

good morning!

I don't usually post in the mornings but I haven't been very good at posting at night lately. Sigh... not doing very good at getting anything accomplished lately! :-)

Alex is taking his math test so I have a minute to post so I thought I would. Hmmm... let's see... there's potential move craziness in the air again. So we should know more in a week or so. I'm actually much more at peace with this potential relo than I was with the last one. I know it seems nuts that I keep posting about potential moves... but I think since Jeff has taken this job that has him out of town Mon-Fri we have really started to crave a situation that would give us a more normal family lifestyle. Unfortunately, the potential for that (with us) is limited where are now. I'll keep you posted.

When I took the CT position at Scrapartist.... part of what I was to help out in the rotation of photo challenges. Well... this week is my week to host the challenge and not ONE soul has participated. So... if you're reading this and like to take pictures, please, please, please (yes, I'm begging) participate in my challenge!! Its not a technical challenge.. its a fun one... a before and after photo challenge. Here are my photos...


I thought about the theme for this challenge after seeing these two consequetive frames when I downloaded them. I took one last shot as Alex ran into the Splash Harbor area at Silver Dollar City last Friday. I didn't follow him because I didn't want my camera wet, so the next frame was from when he emerged. I love the contrast between the two shots and I think they'll make a cool layout (when I get my mojo back of course).

I wish I had some sort of freebie to offer to bribe you all into participating... but I can't for the life of me figure out what I can do that anyone would want! LOL!

Well... Alex is to the part in school where I need to stop typing and actually "teach"! :-)

Who knows... I might post twice today!

overwhelmed

I am so overwhelmed with what I need to be doing right now that I'm not doing any of it! Am I the only one who does this? I did manage to finish one thing though... Clara's b-day invite...

Now I just need to remember to order it tomorrow.

Nothing exciting has been going on here.... we've been pretty boring actually. This week is just the crazy lull between our quick trip to Missouri last weekend and our trip back there for a week (we leave Saturday and stay the whole week - fall break down here). Actually, it's not much of a lull... I have tons to do... the only lull part is that I've got so much to do that I'm not doing any of it and accomplishing nothing. Perhaps tomorrow is the day that I will snap out of it.

With that... I'm off to bed!

'nite!

we're back....

and we had a great trip. I took lots of photos including a shoot for Clara's birthday invite. I should have more to choose from but here's one to give you a sneak peek!


'nite!

need sleep

Okay... still technically chatting at A Cherry On Top... so much fun! I think I did okay... sometimes I just can't keep up with so much text scrolling by!

I've got so many scrapping things to tie up before we head out tomorrow so I should probably get to that.

But... what was I doing instead today?? Paper scrapping again. Here's my layout from today... again... basically another scraplift of one of my digi layouts... but like I said before, you've got to start somewhere.
Tomorrow is the big drive to Missouri! Wish me luck! I'll be back Saturday night, hopefully with lots of pictures!

'nite!

major headache

I have a headache today that just won't go away... so just a short post and then I'm going to bed.

Look what my boy won today....



They had a contest over the summer and he ended up being the first place winner for his age group! Its actually really cool... in order to give it stability we had to fill the base with water. The instructions suggested a garden hose, but I wasn't sure how to swing that in our second floor gameroom. So the kids and I took pitchers and filled it enough to get them started punching and kicking it. I'll have to fill it the rest of the way later.

Well... I'm done. I'm giving up, going to bed and hoping that this headache will be gone in the morning.

'nite!

guess what I did today...

... I actually paper scrapped... gasp! I know! It's actually pretty amusing since its a lift of one of my digi layouts from yesterday. But I guess we all have to start somewhere. LOL! So... here it is...
It was actually kind of fun.... even with the kids "helping". Poor things, I had them do my dirty work... they cleaned my stamps for me and they thought that was big fun. Now I just need to print off more pics so I can play some more! I think digi will always be my main thing, but it will be fun to play with paper too.

Do you know what I just realized the other day? As part of my month as guest digi creative team member at A Cherry On Top they're having a contest where you have to scraplift one of my layouts! So far there's just like four entries, but it is so cool to see another person's take on my original layout. Fun stuff! Oh... and don't forget about the chat on Wednesday... now I just need someone to remind me!

Still feeling a little cruddy. Hopefully the cold is on the way out and there will be no ear infections this time. I seriously can't be sick this week. The kids and I (oh, and the dog) are driving to my parents' house in Missouri for a couple of days. My parents get season passes to Silver Dollar City in Branson every year and if you order them early you get "bring a friend free" passes to be used at certain times throughout the year. Well... our fall passes expire this weekend, thus the last minute trip. Plus, my little hometown is having their fall festival/reunion this weekend as well. So we'll be hitting that too. I'm excited to be possibly experiencing some "real" fall weather. Since I'm not at all in the "real" fall weather mindset, I'll be doing some clothes shopping for the kiddos tomorrow.

Well... its getting late and I still have the kitchen to clean up (we had breakfast for dinner tonight along with fried plantains from a recipe that was in our spanish curriculum... yum).

'nite!

lazy, rainy sunday

We finally got a good rain here today! We had major storms some time during the night... I didn't wake up enough to look at the clock to know what time for sure. But they were great! We desperately need rain here.

I don't know what it is about rainy days but they motivate me to scrap... so I actually got two pages done today...

details here

details here

We really did nothing today. We went to church and to lunch. Then home to watch football (I'm losing my fantasy football game to my FIL... grrrrrr). Then it was back to the church to take the kids to choir and off to the grocery store. Exciting, huh?

I have a new goal this week... I am bound and determined to learn to paper scrap! I have no idea why the concept scares me so, but it does. I'll let you know how it goes!

Okay... I'm off to bed.

'nite!

Clara, the kick off queen

I don't know what got into the girl but if they needed someone to kick off today during the game, Clara was right there on the spot! In fact... one of those kick offs got Clara her very first official game goal!!!! She power kicked the ball from the center of the field, right into the goal. She played so hard today and had such a great time. Anyway... here are some pics...


Alex had his popcorn selling rally thing for cub scouts this afternoon. Can you believe that the goal for selling for each boy is $500?!??!?! My goodness that's a lot of popcorn! I honestly don't know of that many people we could even approach about buying popcorn. Oh well... we'll do what we can. Of course, there's a chart showing what prizes you can get for selling different amounts of popcorn and Alex has set his sites on a tent for selling $1,000 worth of popcorn... more power to him, I guess.

No questions, huh? Heather at DST suggested that I blog about my pet peeves... it may come to that.

Okay... off to enjoy what's left of my Saturday night!

still sick

Yuck... I have entered the phase of having a cold where I really shouldn't go out in public. My eyes are all red and watery, I'm sneezing all of the time and my nose runs constantly... let me tell you, it is quite the attractive look.

So... since we really didn't do much and I didn't take any pics, I'll answer some questions and call it a night.

Frederique - honestly... I have no clue how my pictures are so clear. I have noticed a huge improvement once I got a better grip on manual and was getting better SOOC shots. I also ran the one of Clara through Neat Image... since I was shooting with available light and had my ISO up at 1600.

Adrienne - Thank you for the get well wishes! The angles are in camera. I've gotten really bad about that lately. I think it mainly stems from my using a single focus point when I shoot. At one time I used to use the middle point and focus and recompose, but now its usually set at one of the corners and I tilt to get the right amount of my subject in frame. Oh... I was also using my 85mm on that one and I was short on space. And, no, no backdrop for that one. This was right before she hopped into the shower so what you see behind her is the tub.

Leah - Its nice to know that I'm not the only one with a child who uses objects for things other than their intended purpose. I'm still not exactly clear how she was swinging on her door to make that kind of line down her face! Oh well... some things I'm probably better off not knowing.

Okay... that was kind of fun! If anyone else has any random questions, post away and I'll try to answer them!

'nite!

goose egg

Isn't it pretty? I have no clue what really happened... all she kept saying over and over was "I don't know how it happened, I wasn't swinging on my closet door or anything".... so what do you want to bet she was swinging on her closet door? (but honestly, I'm not sure how one does that)

I really didn't accomplish much today. We did get a lot of school done so that's really all that matters. I really really love having their desks and my desk all in one room.... it makes getting things done so much easier. Maybe if I actually finish straightening up in here I'll take some pictures.

I'm very boring today since I'm still feeling icky. I'm not a big fan of having a cold. So I'm off for another shot of nyquil and a good night's sleep!

'nite!

sniff, cough, sniff, sniff

Yes... it appears as if Alex has shared his cold with me... sigh. I am so ready to crawl into bed after a little nightcap of cherry nyquil... yum!

Absolutely nothing happened here today. I did manage to scrap a page for next month's issue of Digital Artist Magazine, but that's about it (well... besides school, taking Clara to preschool, taking Alex to piano lessons and two trips to the library to return our huge stack of books and movies before I had fines).

Oh... I have forgotten one bit of news... I'm so excited to be the Guest Digital Creative Team Member this month at A Cherry On Top! On Wednesday, September 20th at 10pm Eastern, come chat with me in their chat room. I'll try to be a good chatter! LOL! I swear I just don't have the mental capacity to keep up with chats... things scroll too fast, I forget what I'm typing and who I'm typing it too... it should be interesting! LOL!

I'm glad you were amused by my post this morning! I'm now amused by it... not so much when I first read the email. I just sometimes wish I had the ability to just voice my opinion on things like this v. just sitting and stewing about it. Maybe one day, when I grow up, I'll be able to do that. :-)

Adrienne - I'm pretty sure my family member I referenced does not even know I have a blog... at least not yet. :-) Ahhh... life on the edge! LOL!

Okay... I'm losing it... must sleep now!

'nite!

for your amusement

So yesterday was my first post at 2peas with my copyright thing on my photos. I get up this morning and the first email I see is from the offending family member I mentioned a couple of days ago... with the photos from 2peas IN their email... complaining about how they can no longer print their own copies anymore with the logo across the picture. For some reason, this amuses me.

Okay... that's it for me for now... I've got to run or we'll be late for preschool yet again!

i'm over it!

Okay.... I'm over my little sulk about the photo issue from yesterday. Thank you all so much for your words of support for both the stolen photo and the misguided family member story. I guess I am just EXTREMELY picky about my photos. They are my babies... my art (for lack of a better term) and I just can't handle other people messing with them! Okay... I did say I was over it, didn't I? :-)

So, since I'm over it, I did take some pics of the boy and slapped a copyright thing on there so I could upload them here. Sigh... it makes me sad... he looks so grown up here. Tonight was his first official den meeting for cub scouts. I took these after dinner, before we headed out the door.

The salute was all his idea.


He really seemed to enjoy his meeting tonight. Tigers are required to have a parent with them at their den meetings, but tonight was the new parent meeting so I had to go to that instead.

Looks like my fantasy football team is going to win this first week of the season! In fact, there is a very good chance my team will have the highest score in the league this week! I am not getting overconfident here... just merely stating facts. :-)

Okay... I'm going to go clean the kitchen and watch a bit of the game!

'nite!

looks like its time....

.... to come up with a logo... a copyright logo to put on my photos, that is. Ugh... just found out today that I had an image "stolen" off of betterphoto.com. An old photo from over 2 years ago, but nonetheless... it was mine. I really didn't want to do this... but I guess its time. I will probably just do a copyright symbol and my name, but if any one has any "fun" suggestions, they are definitely welcome. I really don't want to stop posting so this is what I'll have to do. I guess it will have an added bonus though besides the average joe internet photo stealer thing... I may also thwart family members from right click saving my photos. I know that doesn't sound like a bad thing, but can you believe that I had a family member who right click saved some photos of my kids off of 2peas, printed them at home, framed them and then gave them to my grandmother as a gift without my knowledge?!?!??! I had just gotten those same pictures printed through the lab that I use to give to my grandmother but while I was at her house to give her said pictures, she showed me the framed gift. I'm not sure, but the photos appeared to be printed on copy paper. Okay, that was snarky and beside the point... my real point is, was it out of line for that family member to do this? I mean, they were pics of my kids and I took those pics, shouldn't I have first chance at giving them away as gifts? I didn't say anything and probably never will... my grandmother was thrilled to have them regardless of who gave them to her and the quality of the photos and I guess in the end that's what matters the most.... sigh.

Okay... I guess there won't be any photo posts for a day or so while I sort out the copyright thing. I know it's not that difficult, I'm just cranky about the whole thing and dragging my feet.

Hopefully I'll snap out of it tomorrow!

'nite!

saturday

Clara had her first official pink pony game this morning! It was a lot of fun... Clara was a bit out of it due to her allergies... hopefully she'll feel better next week. I know they don't keep score at this age but I think the ponies ended up outscoring the other team something like 9 to 2. There are some really good girls on our team. I think what helps is that our team is made up entirely of little girls with older brothers (oh... except one).

I did manage to scrap some pages and here they are....

details here

details here

With that... I'm heading to bed! 'nite!

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! What a day! As many of you know, I entered the Memory Makers Masters contest this year. I really truly loved my entries but had no real expectations. Rumors swirled this week about calls being done and alas, my phone(s) never rang (and I even managed to keep track of my cell phone for 4 whole days!). My last hope was a finalist position but then it was posted that instead of 10 masters, 10 runner-ups and 30 finalists... there would just be the 10 masters and 10 runner-ups. Oh well... I loved my entries and was itching to submit them elsewhere. I spent most of my day hitting refresh at the pub at 2peas and the Memory Makers website. Nothing.... no posting. It was nearly 4 and time for the kids to go to martial arts... so I left the computer, took them to class and ran errands for nearly two hours. Then I came home to one email.... a blog comment with congrats on MMM runner-up and then I noticed a couple little blue "hello" messages along the side of my screen. OMG... it was true... I got a runner-up spot!!! I was totally floored and nearly hyperventilated! I'm just so honored and incredibly excited to be listed with such an amazing group of scrappers!

I wanted desperately to do a screen shot but I can't figure it out for the life of me... so here's the link to the list...

Memory Makers Masters 2007 List

I just want to thank you all for your comments and your congrats!

I know I promised Alex pics today... but I'm just too scattered to get it done right now! I know I'll have more pics by the end of the weekend... Clara's first Pink Pony soccer game is first thing tomorrow (if it doesn't rain).

thursday

Still nothing going on! Taking a bit of a break from the computer today... feeling a bit overwhelmed again.... sigh. I will get my act together tomorrow though and post my Alex pics from our trip since I've already posted the Clara ones.

Off to watch more football (I have two fantasy players going tonight)!

'nite!

wednesday

Nothing again today.... I did get the mini fixed and it is all well - the doors lock and unlock again! Other than that, it was school this afternoon and soccer practice for Clara tonight. I didn't even get my camera out of the car tonight... I just wanted to sit and chat with the moms. Saturday is her first official game as a pink pony and she is soooo excited!

Anyway... didn't take any pictures today and I didn't scrap anything so here's a slide show of some of my Clara pics from our trip - a mix of everything from when she wasn't feeling so well when we got to the hotel on Friday (don't you love the all pink outfit she picked out?), to Sea World, Fiesta Texas and finally the evening we spent at the hotel pool...



'nite!

tuesday...

... yep, its Tuesday. I have nothing in way of a witty title today. Actually I have nothing in way of news either. Absolutely nothing going on here.... really. I did scrap though! One layout last night and another one today...
details here

details here

That's it for me... I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow! :-)

'nite!

before....

This is Clara in the stands at the Shamu show at Sea World telling us very excitedly how her friend, Lauren, went to the Shamu show and got splashed by Shamu and got All Wet... won't that be fun?!?!?!?

AFTER...
This is Clara during the Shamu show after being splashed by Shamu... not so fun, huh? This was slightly before she threw a royal fit claiming that no one told her that there would be THAT much water, that it would be SALT water and that it would be THAT COLD. It was ugly there for a while, but calm was restored and we had a great rest of the day (did I mention that this happened about an hour into our day??).

We had a fabulous trip and I have lots of pictures to share but I'm overwhelmed by them at the moment so you'll probably see them trickling in on my blog this week.

Oh... big news I couldn't announce until now! I'm on the creative team for the brand new digital scrapbooking magazine called Digital Artist Magazine!!! It is such an honor to be on the team with such amazingly talented women. And a special congrats to Tina for being on the team too!

The September issue is out and it's gorgeous!! You should check it out... here's a sneak peek of the cover....Well... laundry beckons... I'm off! 'nite!